It hasn’t been much of a spring in the Garden State. Cold rain has fallen hard on outdoor musical events such as the Skate and Surf Festival in Jackson and the opening of the Stone Pony Summer Stage in Asbury Park. But this week, the sun finally got serious, and there’s good reason to believe we’ve turned the corner.

The timing is right. For decades, the first week of June has been a time to anticipate for fans of outdoor music in New Jersey. Festivals customarily scheduled for this weekend are long-running traditions: Summer Jam, Hot 97’s annual hip-hop celebration, turns 20 this year, the Crawfish Fest has been putting the crustaceans on to boil for the past 24 years, and the Appel Farm Arts & Music Festival has been inviting singer-songwriters and bands to bucolic Elmer since 1989. Lesson: Once a June party is established in New Jersey and some momentum has been achieved, it’s hard to derail.

SUMMER JAM

After a few years in the late ’00s when it looked like hip-hop might be losing ground to electronic dance music, the ship has been righted by a coterie of promising young rappers, singers and producers. The 20th anniversary of Summer Jam, Hot 97’s massive party and celebration, is an acknowledgment that times are changing for the better. This year’s Jam feels younger, smarter, more lyrical and more flexible — and for the first time in the new millennium, there’s a local hero on the bill. Of course, there’s no guarantee that youth will dominate: Summer Jam is best known for its high-profile surprise appearances, and by the end of the night, every rapper in the old school might have taken a turn on the stadium stage. Expect entertaining deejay sets from Hot 97 personalities between sets, too.

Three reasons to go:

Now established as a visionary force in hip-hop, 25-year-old Kendrick Lamar astonished audiences with "Good Kid, m.A.A.d. City," a 70-minute narrative in intricate, moving verse of a day in the life of Compton, Calif. Lamar is one-quarter of Black Hippy, a collective of emcees with unusual deliveries and lyrical skills to burn.

Joe Budden isn’t a new artist, but the Jersey City native sat so long in label limbo in the mid-’00s that it sometimes feels like he is. The hip-hop audience finally caught up to his confessional, emotionally forthright style, and "No Love Lost," his latest album, features some of his best work.

One of the stars of the latest Grammy Awards telecast, Miguel introduced America to his distinctive amalgam of soul, pop, hip-hop and psychedelic rock with the sultry "Adorn," which earned a Best Song nomination. This year, he’s been opening for Alicia Keys; his dynamic performance at the Prudential Center in Newark in April had early arrivals dancing in the aisles.